Tuesday started quite early. We were packed up and out of the house by 3:00 am, headed to Boise to catch our flight. In case any of you are wondering, Tim and I are very upset that Horizon no longer flies into Idaho Falls, it makes traveling to and from Rexburg a bit more difficult for us. We made it to the Boise airport without any hitches. Tim had his first experience going through a body scanner; luckily, I was spared the experience because the line was getting backed up. We made a stop in Seattle where we almost got bumped, but unfortunately made our flight in the end. ($800 in ticket vouchers would have been awesome.) By 1:30 pm we had made it to Anchorage.
I must say, Tim and I were very efficient in our "perishable items" shopping. We wasted no time getting from the airport, dropping off our bags at the Petersen's, borrowing the car, and getting to Costco. We knew exactly how many pounds of food we could fit in our coolers and purchased accordingly. We amazingly used all of our space and within pounds of our limit. I was pretty proud of ourselves. We even had time to go treadmill shopping, have dinner with our branch president and Elder's quorum president, and buy cell phones. Yes, we gave in and finally got GCI cell phones. GCI is the only provider that works in Togiak. I must admit, it is really nice having a cell phone again. Overall, Tuesday was a pretty full and productive day.


Friday and Saturday we also spent several hours at the school doing prep work for the new year. On one hand, thinking of the new school year is very overwhelming, because this time I know what I'm getting myself into. I know how much work and how hard it is. On the other hand, I am a bit relieved because my learning curve is so much lower. I know what to expect and get a second shot.
This morning Tim and I had to fly back to Dillingham for inservice. Traveling in the bush is not like traveling in the lower 48. Tim and I were told by our vice principal that we would be flying with AIA, Sunday, 9-10. That doesn't mean that we were taking off at 9:00 am and landing at 10:00 am. It meant that we would leave sometime between 9:00 am and 10:00 am. We left after 11:00 am. Most companies will send a driver to come get you from your house. Usually they call about 10 minutes before they show up. There's no buildings or check-in process at the airport, you just get out of the van and into the plane. This particular plane had 6 seats (including the pilot and copilot). When we arrived in Dillingham, the pilot drove us to where we needed to go (in our case, the Mormon church!).
There were a whole 10 people at church include Tim and myself. The Dillingham branch has always been small, but this week was particularly small. I'm not sure where everyone was. As soon as we walked into the building all attention was turned to us. The lesson was paused to find out how our summer was, how long we'd been back, if we knew of any other LDS teachers coming this year, what our new phone numbers were, and if we wanted to have a BBQ while we were here. After a few minutes, we resumed with the lesson, which was combined Relief Society, Priesthood, and Young Men. (There were no young women or primary children.) I love the Dillingham branch.
Tim and I have the rest of the day to ourselves. We'll probably spend time this evening catching up with all the other teachers from our district as they arrive. It's nice that we are no longer the new guys! I feel a little bit like I know what I'm doing this time around.